WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2026: HUD launched the Public Housing Authority (PHA) Accountability Dashboard, a free public tool that shows each US housing authority's performance score and rating, its public housing and Housing Choice Voucher numbers, how fully it uses its vouchers and funding, and its federal budget authority. Users can search by housing authority, by state or nationwide.
For US landlords who rent to tenants with a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), the dashboard is a quick way to look up the public housing agency that inspects your unit and pays the housing assistance under your contract.
What does HUD's PHA Accountability Dashboard show?
According to HUD's announcement (HUD No. 26-089), the dashboard shows, for each PHA in the US:
- Current performance score from HUD's Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) and Section 8 Management Assessment Program (SEMAP);
- Current performance designation: High Performer, Standard, Substandard or Troubled;
- Public housing and Housing Choice Voucher statistics: the units and vouchers each PHA manages;
- Utilization rates: how fully the PHA uses its available vouchers and funding;
- Budget authority: the federal resources each PHA has.
Users can run custom reports by status (troubled, substandard, standard, high performer, in receivership or monitorship, or facing a funding shortfall) and compare states and regions. A glossary and user guide come with it. HUD also said that since January 2025 it has moved 77 PHAs out of troubled status.
What are SEMAP and PHAS scores?
SEMAP is the federal rule set HUD uses to rate how a PHA runs its voucher program, found at 24 CFR part 985. PHAS rates public housing and is found at 24 CFR part 902. For a voucher landlord, the SEMAP score is the more relevant of the two: its indicators (24 CFR 985.3) include whether the PHA checks that the rent to owner is reasonable, sets payment standards correctly, and inspects units and enforces housing quality standards on time.
What it means for landlords
The dashboard does not change any rule in the voucher program: your HAP contract, rent reasonableness, inspections and tenant protections stay the same. What it adds is public information. A landlord deciding whether to accept a voucher, or managing units under several agencies, can now see how HUD rates each PHA and whether HUD lists it as troubled, in receivership or facing a funding shortfall. Our guide to the Housing Choice Voucher program for landlords explains how the contract and payments work, and our guide to Section 8 inspections covers the unit standards.
What to do now
- Look up each PHA you work with on the dashboard and note its SEMAP score and designation.
- Check its utilization and funding status before taking on new voucher tenancies, and ask the PHA's landlord liaison about anything you do not understand.
- Keep your own records of inspection dates and housing assistance payments, so you can raise late items with the PHA quickly.
- Keep following federal rules that protect voucher tenants, such as VAWA housing protections, and state rules on source of income where they apply.
More US landlord guides are on our blog hub.
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